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Commission on Appointments to study posthumous confirmation for Robredo

The Commission on Appointments (CA) will be studying the possibility of conferring a posthumous confirmation on late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III said on Wednesday.

"I will ask the leadership, I'll find out from the CA if that is possible," Sotto, chairman of the CA committee on interior and local government, told reporters during an interview on Thursday.

Robredo died in a plane crash last Saturday, 11 days before his scheduled confirmation hearing.

"We were going to confirm Secretary Robredo on August 29, just for the record," Sotto said during Wednesday's plenary session.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, chair of the CA, said that he still has to study the proposal.

"Hindi ko alam. We have to study it. Not that I don’t want him to be confirmed, in fact we had him scheduled for confirmation, but as far as my recollection goes, it has never been done before," he said in a separate interview on Wednesday.

"I do not know if we can do a posthumous confirmation. I must confess my ignorance," he added.

Other senators, however, seemed divided on whether the CA should award the posthumous confirmation.

"Basta walang mava-violate na rules ng CA then by all means we should confirm him even posthumously kasi nakaschedule naman talaga siya sa August 29," said Sen. Panfilo Lacson in another interview.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, however, said that this is not possible under the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

"What we confirm is the appointment of the official. In the case of Sec. Robredo, what is before the commission is an ad interim appointment which under the Constitution we must confirm. [But] the appointment would terminate and would lapse upon the death of the appointee so there is no more appointment to confirm," he said.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said that there is nothing in the law prohibiting the awarding of the confirmation, but added that "it is not going to do him [Robredo] anymore good."

Enrile, meanwhile, said that with or without confirmation, Robredo will be remembered as a public servant.

“Whether he was confirmed or not, it makes no difference. He had a valid appointment as Secretary. He will be a Secretary of Interior and Local Government in the political history of this country,” he said. — BM, GMA News